Garstang has a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and a law degree from Indiana University's School of Law. He joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 1976, worked for an international law firm in offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and Singapore for nine years, and eventually joined the World Bank. But negotiating international loan contracts and managing legal reform projects wasn't enough to satisfy the creative streak waiting to break free in him. Advertisement So, he cut back to doing contract work for the bank and earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. He wrote a draft novel set in Southeast Asia while he was still working for the World Bank, but he discovered it wasn't marketable as it was written and shelved it. When Garstang moved to the Shenandoah Valley, he switched to writing short stories, which he felt played better to his writing strengths. But getting them published wasn't easy, because large publishing houses don't tend to see short-story books as potential blockbusters, he said. "The big publishing houses are not about nurturing new writers, but there are a lot of small presses that are," Garstang said. "I think they are the future of publishing."
Korea RPCV Clifford Garstang writes "In an Uncharted Country"
Author finds inspiration for short stories in the Valley
By Maria Longley/staff • mlongley@newsleader.com •
September 4, 2009
Author Clifford Garstang has written a collection of short fiction stories about people looking for place, a theme that fascinates the Mint Spring resident because he counts himself among those people.
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The 55-year-old grew up in Peoria, Ill., and after a successful law career took him to places as far away as China, Indonesia and the Philippines, he settled in the Shenandoah Valley in 2001 to pursue his writing dream full-time. Once here, he found himself inspired by the landscape and the locals.
"I was an outsider here and struggling to meet people and to fit in - so that topic interested me," Garstang said. "Then I started looking around and seeing that even people who've been here a long time were also trying to fit in in some way - people struggling to find a place for themselves."
His new book published by Press 53, a Winston-Salem, N.C., company that specializes in short story collections, is aptly called "In an Uncharted Country" and includes locations and characters inspired by the Valley.
The story "Savage Source" is set, in part, in a coffee shop called Java Mountain, which looks in its description much like Blue Mountain Coffee in Staunton. The canine character "Stonewall," in the story of the same name, was based partly on Mosby the dog, the beloved Malamute-Husky who was fatally shot in 2003.
Of the 12 stories - which are linked by overlapping characters, place and theme - 11 have been previously published in national literary magazines.
The yarns, Garstang added, don't offer clear endings.
"The way I end them, there are still questions," he said. "I don't like stories that tie up too neatly."
The story "Heading for Home," about an African American sheriff investigating the murder of a cow, was named a Distinguished American Mystery Story by Best American Mysteries, which compiles short-story anthologies. It was first published in the Baltimore Review in 2006.
Garstang has a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and a law degree from Indiana University's School of Law. He joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 1976, worked for an international law firm in offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and Singapore for nine years, and eventually joined the World Bank.
But negotiating international loan contracts and managing legal reform projects wasn't enough to satisfy the creative streak waiting to break free in him.
So, he cut back to doing contract work for the bank and earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte.
He wrote a draft novel set in Southeast Asia while he was still working for the World Bank, but he discovered it wasn't marketable as it was written and shelved it.
When Garstang moved to the Shenandoah Valley, he switched to writing short stories, which he felt played better to his writing strengths. But getting them published wasn't easy, because large publishing houses don't tend to see short-story books as potential blockbusters, he said.
"The big publishing houses are not about nurturing new writers, but there are a lot of small presses that are," Garstang said. "I think they are the future of publishing."
Two of Garstang's writing mentors have enthusiastically endorsed "In an Uncharted Country": Recent Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout and National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien.
Garstang wrote the final story in the book, "Red Peony," as a sort of conclusion to the collection.
"That story relates to how there really is a place for everyone," he said. "And that people find a way to fit together."
Garstang will be at The Sacred Circle in Staunton signing books 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday.
